hostess backups

Create, list, restore, and delete service backups for Postgres, Redis, and custom services.

Description

Manage backups for your database and stateful services. Hostess supports automated and manual backups for Postgres, Redis, and custom services with backup configurations. This command group lets you list existing backups, create on-demand backups, restore from a backup, and delete old backups.

backups list

List all backups for services in a deployment.

Usage

Terminal

hostess backups list [flags]

Flags

Flag	Short	Type	Default	Description
`--project`	`-p`	`string`	From `hostess.yml`	Project name
`--env`	`-e`	`string`	Latest deployment if omitted	Select the latest deployment in an environment
`--service`		`string`	All services	Filter backups by service name

Examples

Terminal

# List all backups across all services
hostess backups list

SERVICE            DATE                 SIZE       TYPE         FILE
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
database           2025-03-27 02:00:05  4.2 MB     scheduled    database-20250327-020005.sql.gz
database           2025-03-26 02:00:03  4.1 MB     scheduled    database-20250326-020003.sql.gz
database           2025-03-25 14:30:22  4.1 MB     manual       database-20250325-143022.sql.gz
cache              2025-03-27 02:00:10  128 KB     scheduled    cache-20250327-020010.rdb

Terminal

# List backups for a specific service
hostess backups list --service database

# List backups for a specific environment
hostess backups list --env staging

backups create

Create an on-demand backup for a service. This triggers an immediate backup job outside of the regular scheduled backup cycle.

Usage

Terminal

hostess backups create <service> [flags]

Flags

Flag	Short	Type	Default	Description
`--project`	`-p`	`string`	From `hostess.yml`	Project name
`--env`	`-e`	`string`	Latest deployment if omitted	Select the latest deployment in an environment

Examples

Terminal

# Create a manual backup of the database
hostess backups create database

✓ Backup job created for database
  Job: backup-database-manual-20250327-143022

Terminal

# Create a backup in a specific environment
hostess backups create database --env staging

Manual backups count toward your retention limit. If you have a retention of 7 and create manual backups, the oldest backups (whether scheduled or manual) will be removed when the limit is reached.

backups restore

Restore a service from a backup. This overwrites the current database with the backup data.

Usage

Terminal

hostess backups restore <service> [flags]

Flags

Flag	Short	Type	Default	Description
`--project`	`-p`	`string`	From `hostess.yml`	Project name
`--env`	`-e`	`string`	Latest deployment if omitted	Select the latest deployment in an environment
`--backup`		`string`	Interactive selection	Backup filename to restore

Examples

Terminal

# Restore with interactive backup selection
hostess backups restore database

Available backups:
  1) database-20250327-020005.sql.gz (2025-03-27 02:00:05, 4.2 MB)
  2) database-20250326-020003.sql.gz (2025-03-26 02:00:03, 4.1 MB)
  3) database-20250325-143022.sql.gz (2025-03-25 14:30:22, 4.1 MB)
Select backup [1-3]: 1
This will overwrite the current database. Continue?
Type 'yes' to confirm: yes
✓ Restore job created for database
  Restore job: restore-database-20250327-143055
  Safety backup job: pre-restore-database-20250327-143055

Terminal

# Restore from a specific backup file
hostess backups restore database --backup database-20250326-020003.sql.gz

Restoring a backup overwrites the current database. Hostess automatically creates a safety backup before restoring, so you can recover if the restore causes issues. The safety backup filename is shown in the output.

If the --backup flag is not provided, Hostess shows an interactive list of available backups to choose from. In non-interactive environments (CI/CD), always provide the --backup flag explicitly.

backups delete

Delete a specific backup file.

Usage

Terminal

hostess backups delete <service> [flags]

Flags

Flag	Short	Type	Default	Description
`--project`	`-p`	`string`	From `hostess.yml`	Project name
`--env`	`-e`	`string`	Latest deployment if omitted	Select the latest deployment in an environment
`--backup`		`string`	Required	Backup filename to delete

Examples

Terminal

# Delete a specific backup
hostess backups delete database --backup database-20250325-143022.sql.gz

Delete backup 'database-20250325-143022.sql.gz' for service 'database'?
Type 'yes' to confirm: yes
✓ Deleted backup database-20250325-143022.sql.gz

Deleted backups are permanent. Review the backup filename before deleting it.

Configuring Backups

Backups are configured in your hostess.yml file on the service definition. Here are the supported forms:

Postgres / Redis (Built-in)

hostess.yml

services:
  database:
    type: postgres
    resources: medium
    backups: daily            # Shorthand: daily backups with 7 retention

  cache:
    type: redis
    backups:
      schedule: weekly        # Full form
      retention: 14           # Keep 14 backups

Custom Services

For custom services, you provide the backup and restore commands:

hostess.yml

services:
  mongodb:
    type: custom
    image: mongo:7
    backups:
      schedule: daily
      retention: 7
      command: ["mongodump", "--archive=/backup/dump.gz", "--gzip"]
      restore_command: ["mongorestore", "--drop", "--archive=/backup/dump.gz", "--gzip"]

Schedule Options

Schedule	Frequency
`daily`	Once per day
`weekly`	Once per week
`biweekly`	Once every two weeks
`monthly`	Once per month
Custom cron	Any 5-field cron expression (e.g., `0 2 * * *`)

On this page